Only in York County

Hello, everyone! I apologize for the lack of recent columns; our family recently moved and I needed to take some time off to help us get settled. I’m grateful to (and was incredibly touched by) the many readers who wrote to make sure I was OK. Thank you all for making a stressful time a lot better.

But, of course, that means any feeble attempts I’d been making to catch up on my Ask Joan mail have now gone out the window… so we better get to the questions!

What’s inside

1. Remembering York County High School
2. Where to get Ahrens butcher bologna
3. More of your memories sought

1. Remembering York County High School

Just recently, I heard from Sundra Shaffer of York, who wrote, “Friends and I were talking about the old West Manchester Mall. The subject came up of an alternative-type high school being located in one of the vacated retail stores. It was a school where students had the opportunity to gain a high school diploma who had formerly left the regular school system. It was located I think in the same hallway of Value City. Can you shed any light on this topic!?”

Sundra, I can, and in fact I have several friends who graduated thanks to that institution, which was at the time called York County High School. Your description is pretty spot-on – in general, it served people who left the traditional school system for one reason or another, offering classes at night and on weekends, among many other things.

This program later became York Adams Academy, which is still in operation, at the York Learning Center in the former Central York High School in North York borough. York Adams Academy operates as a public charter school, and is open to students 17 to 20 years old who live in a participating district and who have completed at least some high school credits already. When students complete their required credits for graduation, they are issued a dual diploma from YAA, in partnership with their home district.

I’m glad York County is still offering this type of completion program, and I’m certainly interested in hearing memories from anyone who attended when it was still York County High School, “in the mall!”

2. Where to get Ahrens butcher bologna

One of the regional foods we talk about regularly is butcher bologna. Not very long ago, reader Rodney Leiphart wrote to me, asking about one of the more well-known local brands, Ahrens, and specifically to their larger bolognas. “Can’t find it anywhere. The small just ain’t the same,” he noted.

Ahrens is made by Kessler’s in Lemoyne, and in the past, places people have told me they found it (specifically the large version) were at what is now Dottie’s in Dover Township (though that was reported to me back when it was still Hake’s), at the Weis on Carlisle Road in Dover Township, and at Jerry’s Great Valu near Red Lion. Jerry’s even lists the “chub” (which I think is the shorter stick of the larger bologna Rodney is looking for) for sale on their website, so they would probably be one of my top recommendations for somewhere to look!

3. More of your memories sought

To close out today, I thought I’d do some “quick hits” of topics people have asked me about, and which I don’t have much if any information. If you have memories to share regarding any of these, please do write!

• Bob Wolf wants to know if anyone remembers City’s Edge, an ice cream shop on Harrison Street in York.
• Warren Hengst is wondering, “Does anybody know the name of the ice cream drive-in that was on the right-hand side of the road from York to Shrewsbury at the borough limit?”
• Beverly Johnson is “looking for the year that Twin Kiss on Route 74 closed.” She said she thinks it might have been the late 1960s or early 1970s. “Having no luck researching it myself,” she added.
• Kenneth Paup said, “As I was growing up in York Town Homes in the 1950 era, I remember people talking about a five- and a 10-mile house. This was before the Lincoln Highway was constructed to Gettysburg. My thought is that those were measurements between York and Gettysburg. Do any of your readers know of this?”
• And, in one of my favorite roles, “Joan who settles fights,” I had this question from a reader named John. “Me and this guy at work are having an argument about the old Hechinger. I say it used to be where Sheetz and the Hyundai dealer are on Memory Lane; he says it was the building Wolf Furniture is now in. Help!” (Wolf’s, of course, has closed since John asked this; sorry, John!) I’m interested in this one too because I thought I remembered a Hechinger where the West York Sheetz is now, but I might be misremembering that!